The Joy of Incremental Gains

Inbound marketing is about driving results, which means you should be deeply invested in monitoring meaningful analytics and the business impact of your inbound marketing programs. The great thing about online marketing is that existing measurement and ad serving programs provide a near-instant view of how your efforts are impacting business results (heck, even Google Analytics data is now available in "real-time").

The problem with this ability to see immediate results is that we also often look for huge returns, immediately. Many think that just turning on a paid search campaign will boosts sales by 200% over night, or creating a Facebook page will result in 6,000 "likes" in a day, or writing a single blog post will dramatically increase traffic as soon as it's published.

I'm not saying these things aren't possible and don't or can't happen. They do, and they can; all I'm saying is, don't count on it, be patient, and strive for incremental gains.

Small improvements lead to big results over time.

The beauty of a good inbound marketing campaign is not just in the immediate returns, but in how your campaign improves over time, and how those returns accumulate to eventually represent a significant amount.


A good inbound marketing campaign builds upon its successes and improves over time. It learns and optimizes and is always moving forward.

How to strive for incremental gains:

1. Identify small, "under-the-radar" opportunities. Once you've made the big-ticket optimizations to your website or marketing program, the biggest chance to succeed is to find the minor areas that need tweaking. By identifying and optimizing many of these opportunities, you'll find a cumulative positive effect on your results.

2. Be patient. Don't get stressed if your campaign doesn't see significant gains over night, and don't make rash judgments without a decent sample size. Obviously, you should see some early signs of positive growth, but be realistic and continue to make smart improvements that will result in long term success.

3. Look at long term trends. When measuring results, don't confine your view to just the past week. Look at the last 2 or 3 years and measure the macro-trends. If your campaign has been running for a while, it's a beautiful thing to look at a slow but consistent upward trend. Instead of comparing this month to last month (only a .5% growth in business?) look at this month vs. the same month last year (30% growth!) or even before then.

4. Aim for consistency. Your goal should be to constantly improve results, not just provide a big jump which plateaus or drops off. Think about how you can drive sustained website visits, return visitation, or consistent content sharing. Remember: a one-day spike is great...for one day. Sustained growth is more meaningful and valuable in the long run.

5. Run small tests. Experiment with minor creative changes for CTR improvements, make small changes to your website and look for a lift, or try to improve quality scores for individual keywords (again, cumulative results are key!).

6. Set benchmarks and goals. Having something to aim for and compare against is a great way to stay on track and maintain an upward swing. It is unbelievably motivating when you realize you're falling under goal, and it provides a quantifiable way to prove sustained success.

As the idiom goes, "Rome wasn't built in a day", and neither are your inbound marketing results. Strive for incremental gains and watch your results grow (slowly, but surely).

Video of the day! John Mayer covering Gun's and Roses' "Patience". Enjoy!

A Response to Seth Godin's Blog, "The Erosion in the Paid Media Pyramid"

This blog post is in response to Seth Godin's recent post, which can be found here: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/12/the-erosion-in-the-paid-media-pyramid.html


Let me first say, I love Seth Godin's work. I think he revolutionized the way people share ideas and thoughts online and changed the game when it comes to branding and marketing strategies.


And now is where you think I'm going to say, "...but..."


Well, I'm not going to say that. Seth's recent blog post concerning paid media and the degradation of the paid model is spot-on. Having worked in an advertising agency under the "media" umbrella, it's clear that the landscape is in a state of transition. 


As Seth states, real, high-production value content is easier than ever to create and distribute given technological advances.


Does this mean that the glossy television commercial is dead? Or the 60-second radio spot is a goner? No. 

The Road to Media Success is paved with planning,
collaboration and innovation.

What is means (to me at least) is that content marketing strategy is more important than ever. 


Since it is so easy for everyone and anyone to make great, interesting content to share online, the walls between big-spenders and little-guys have crumbled. Where large companies used to be able to simply outspend everyone else to get the results they wanted, that option is no longer available (or at least not as effective). 


So, who has the advantage now?


Answer - the one who plans the best. 


Strategic media planning has to consider all aspects of media, from the top of Seth's pyramid to the very bottom; from the "bespoke" to the "free". All too often media is bought in isolation. Television buying is done with demographics in mind, but does it consider how that corresponds to the online audience? How does the radio spot coordinate with the free content that is being shared? How can all of these things help each other?

The New Media Plan

Media planning is more important than ever because it needs to consider all aspects and placements of the message. Media, creative and interactive need to work together to build a comprehensive road-map for success, taking into consideration the big, glossy ads as well as the nimble social content. This way, the "mass" and "free" content work to support the high-investment content - and vice-versa.


Before you dictate which specific media to launch in the coming months, first take a step back and consider the whole media picture. Put a smart, comprehensive strategy in place, and you are guaranteed to succeed with your media plan.




In recognition of bringing these practices together, I present to you the music video of the day:

Do you have any thoughts to share regarding the new media planning model? Comment below!